I realize I’ve been a bit AWOL over the last few days. I spent the weekend up on Thetis Island at Camp Columbia, the Anglican camp for this diocese. It was our parish retreat and there were about 50 people up there (including nearly our entire choir so I’m not sure who was left to sing Sunday morning!). It was lots of fun, though not as refreshing as I had hoped in terms of amounts of sleep…

I ended up staying up far too late both nights with bonfires on the beach. There is a huge natural depression in the rock on the beach in front of the camp which is absolutely ideal for fires. Some of the guys gathered lots of wood throughout the day and we were able to keep a massive fire going for hours. They cooked oysters on it and some marshmallows made an appearance for a very short time. The wind was blowing quite strongly from the north which kept the smoke going a predictable direction, which is nice. It also made it a tad chilly. Sitting around one of those massive fires always presents the problem of roasting front/freezing backside. My backside was radiating coldness for a good period of time after I left the fire and went to bed. So 

much so that I thought there was a hole in my sleeping bag and wool blanket before I figured out it was just my bum half-frozen.

The weekend was fairly cool for March (as I remember it) and we had a mini-blizzard Saturday afternoon – it began minutes after I set out on a walk.  I wanted to walk down to Pioneer Pacific Camp, in North Cove (practically at the other end of the Island from Camp Columbia) to visit friends who are the site managers. Unfortunately, they were not there so I left a note and walked back. There is something quite peaceful about walking in falling snow. Very few cars were out and only 4 or so passed me on my walk between the camps. By the time I was heading home, the snow was falling at a good rate. It was quiet and falling snow serves to muffle sounds even more. The only sound I could hear was the snow hitting my jacket and the occasional gurgle

 of water seeping through the mud at the side of the road. It was beautiful.

A friend from Vancouver was over this weekend and stayed Sunday and Monday night with me (though I had to abandon her all day yesterday and today because of work and school). We had some laughs and good times remembering our backpacking adventures. I managed to get precious little done over the weekend in preparation for the chem test today. I think I passed… but I feel okay about it, so that is all that matters. All in all, it was a good weekend.

[Aside: Glad I bought my Leonard Cohen ticket when I did – they are all sold out as of today.]

The two topics of the title are not meant to be associated. Really. They just happened to be things of note lately.

I had a surprise visit to the dentist yesterday. It was surprise because I had not planned on going yesterday – I called to book an appointment and they had a cancellation for that afternoon and as the free next appointment was two weeks away, I took it. Perhaps it is a good thing to have little warning for a visit to the dentist so that one does not need to live in fear and trepidation of the visit.

This visit, however, reminded me of why I don’t like going. Last time I went to the dentist my teeth and gums got a regular work-over which left my gums sore for a week. A week. Regular flossing? I was struggling to even brush. When I mentioned that this time they told me I should floss more regularly to avoid it. My response: I do floss regularly, I just try to leave my teeth and gums acquainted with each other at the end of the session.

In the end, I managed to convince the hygienist that my teeth are hard to floss and that the spots of fluorosis are not my fault. I had my first fluoride in over 10 years and was reminded of why I used to hate it. Having to wait to eat after the appointment was pretty bad too. I did leave with a cool rubber “gum massager” (it is supposed to help me clean around my wisdom teeth, which, incidentally, are staying), a new toothbrush and a new thing of floss which supposedly will be better than the crap I’m currently using. As long as it doesn’t molest my gums, I’m okay with it.

Yesterday was also day two of my experiment to discover the source of my headaches. Starting the middle of last week, I have had a headache for at least part of every day. It was always in full swing when I went to bed each night (which made studying fun) and was frequently still there in the morning. Being the nerd that I am, I isolated a number of variables that could be causing them: lack of sleep, dehydration, too much coffee and/or sugar in my diet lately, a fairly rubbish diet otherwise, and so on. I didn’t get around to grocery shopping last week, so I was living on random stuff and not as much fresh fruits and veggies as I’d like.

Being the good psych student that I was, I know that the proper way to conduct an experiment is to investigate one variable at a time so as to eliminate interference, blah blah blah. Accordingly, I tested them all at once. Starting Monday, I ingested no coffee (actually, that accidentally started on Sunday) or extra sugars (cookies and stuff like that which I don’t need). Apparently I am giving up something for Lent. I also increased my veggie intake once again and tried to drink more water; I have a 1L cup that follows me everywhere at home. I have not had a headache since the one that enveloped my head mid-day on Monday. The headache was gone Tuesday when I woke up and has not been heard from since.

While I could attribute it to all of the above variables being modified, I am pretty sure I can narrow it to one in particular: sleep. Monday night I had great intentions of going to a Lenten prayer workshop at church led by a couple who are psychologists/spiritual directors. It sounded great and I may still be able to go in coming weeks. I got home Monday night, had some food, went to change into some more comfortable clothes for studying and fell asleep. Right there, on my bed, at 7 pm. Woke up briefly a couple of times, during the second at 10:30, I decided to change into my pjs and just go to bed. Next sign of life was when the alarm went of at 7 am, apparently I was tired.

Currently, I am procrastinating from the same studying I should have been doing on Monday. I am actually trying to get ahead because I intend to relax and enjoy the upcoming weekend at camp and don’t anticipate having time to study before the test next week. But sleep is so inviting, and, after all, is good for me.